Read Online Candide ou l'Optimisme Annotated French Edition eBook Voltaire
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Candide, ou l’Optimisme est un conte philosophique de Voltaire paru à Genève en janvier 1759. Il a été réédité vingt fois du vivant de l’auteur (plus de cinquante aujourd’hui) ce qui en fait un des plus grands succès littéraires français.
Anonyme en 1759, Candide est attribué à un certain « Monsieur le Docteur Ralph » en 1761, à la suite du remaniement du texte par Voltaire. Ce titre ronflant donne tout de suite le ton au lecteur qui pourrait hésiter sur le genre de l’ouvrage conte ou essai ? Art mineur ou art noble ? L’auteur prend, dès les premières lignes, position contre la noblesse aux titres bien plus ronflants que celui-ci. Et que dire du nom du soi-disant docteur Ralph ? Rien de plus qu’une onomatopée qui ne laisse aucun doute sur le ton de cette œuvre (voir Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, le château de la situation initiale). Cette œuvre si ironique dès les premières lignes, ne laisse aucun doute sur l’origine de l’auteur, qui ne pouvait faire partie que des Lumières. Et de là à pense
Read Online Candide ou l'Optimisme Annotated French Edition eBook Voltaire
"Voltaire had an interesting and sometimes tumultuous relation with "The Church" and religious thought of his time. In Candide, he takes great pains to ridicule the writings of both Milton and Alexander Pope, more specifically the latter in An Essay on Man, in which both writers attempt to "vindicate the ways of God to man". To understand this, or better, to have read these writings will further illuminate what Voltaire is attempting in Candide.
Candide is the protagonist and is a seemingly good-hearted but rather simple fellow whose mentor, Pangloss, teaches him that no matter what happens it is always for the best. As a note, pay attention to each of the main characters names as they seem to me to have a descriptive quality to them, e.g. Pan, meaning "all" and gloss from the Greek glossa, meaning tongue, to get a name that roughly means "all talk".
The story begins with Candide and his love interest being suddenly separated and the events of his life from there. What follows in the story is a series of horrible events mixed with some virtuous ones that Pangloss continuously explains to Candide that whatever happens is for the best.
Even if you have no philosophical interest, the book is both funny and sad, entertaining yet thought provoking with a couple of memorable passages. I consider it a pretty good read and, as a bonus, a quick one."
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Candide ou l'Optimisme Annotated French Edition eBook Voltaire Reviews :
Candide ou l'Optimisme Annotated French Edition eBook Voltaire Reviews
- Voltaire had an interesting and sometimes tumultuous relation with "The Church" and religious thought of his time. In Candide, he takes great pains to ridicule the writings of both Milton and Alexander Pope, more specifically the latter in An Essay on Man, in which both writers attempt to "vindicate the ways of God to man". To understand this, or better, to have read these writings will further illuminate what Voltaire is attempting in Candide.
Candide is the protagonist and is a seemingly good-hearted but rather simple fellow whose mentor, Pangloss, teaches him that no matter what happens it is always for the best. As a note, pay attention to each of the main characters names as they seem to me to have a descriptive quality to them, e.g. Pan, meaning "all" and gloss from the Greek glossa, meaning tongue, to get a name that roughly means "all talk".
The story begins with Candide and his love interest being suddenly separated and the events of his life from there. What follows in the story is a series of horrible events mixed with some virtuous ones that Pangloss continuously explains to Candide that whatever happens is for the best.
Even if you have no philosophical interest, the book is both funny and sad, entertaining yet thought provoking with a couple of memorable passages. I consider it a pretty good read and, as a bonus, a quick one. - NOTE Due to difficulties in posting this review, until it is completely updated the full text of the review, with links, can be found in the comments section directly below. I apologize for this but have been having an unusually difficult time in getting this review to post. This note will be removed once the review is finalized and posted in final form.
This review will address the newly issued edition of Candide that has been released by Open Road Media as well as give an overview of editions of Candide available for the and available on .
Many versions of well-known classic books are available. For books available in the public domain, as is the case for Candide, oftentimes these versions are available for free or for very low price.
Some of these editions are of low quality and have various issues that make them less desirable for those who like to read classics on their s. When I am looking for a classic book to purchase for my , it is usually a minor research project to determine which one I think will be the 'best' for my reading, and sometimes I end up purchasing more than one version in order to get one that is well presented and formatted for the .
This is a relatively short book, normally about 100 pages in printed form, and not a difficult read. This edition is well produced, the publishers website claims that it has been professionally proofread, and I have detected no errors myself (such as often appear in books which have been scanned and published without careful check).
This Open Road Media version of Candide appears to be the most common version offered on and uses the translation by Philip Little (see note below) which was originally published by Modern Library in 1918 and is public domain and readily available online (see for example Project Gutenberg link below). It includes the following
- short introduction written by the translator Philip Littell
- complete text of Candide (presumably also translated by Philip Littell)
- table of contents is included and functions properly, with book 'locations' indicated but not page numbers
It does not include footnotes, which the Gutenberg Library (online) version of Candide does include (see comments section below for link to the Gutenberg Library website). The two versions are otherwise identical as far as I can tell, and the Gutenberg Library version indicates where edits have been made in order to correct typos, and those corrections have all also been included in this Open Road Media version.
(I note that this edition does not indicate which translation is used, nor does the Open Road media website provide that information, however it does show Philip Littell as the author of the introduction and several references I've found also indicate Littell is the translator. However, the NY Public Library article on Candide (see link in comments below) refers to this as an anonymous translation, saying "NYPL is using the most widely available e-text of the book, from the anonymous translation published by the Modern Library in 1918, available on Project Gutenberg").
Candide has been well reviewed on and is available in many different editions, both for the and in print. The listings on with the greatest number of reviews are listed below. I would refer to these listings and the accompanying reviews for discussion of the book itself, which is generally regarded as a major classic and which has been included on many lists of 'best' or 'most influential classic novels
- Candide with 166 reviews at the present time (1918 Modern Library translation)
- Candide Or Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Listed on as ASIN B00B7NP1HQ - Candide Or Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) with 72 reviews and this page on also provides links to the greatest number of formats available, including 8 different versions for the
Candide was written by the French philosopher Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) and first published in 1789, in France. It has been translated into English numerous times. I am not going to attempt to judge which of the various translations might be preferable for one reason or another. I do list some of the translations currently available below, for those interested. Generally they can be sampled using 's 'Look Inside" feature to get an idea of the quality of the translation, and in some cases the customer reviews here on will also address the quality of the translation. I do not know that there are huge differences in the various translations but I'll include in the notes below any comments I do run across that might indicate a preference for any of the translations (some works, War and Peace for example, have strong points of view from different scholars regarding which translation is more true to the original writing). Not all translations are available in editions.
Other editions and more recent translations available include (this is not intended to be a complete listing of all translations currently available, only a selected few)
- this 1947 translation by John Butt available in Penguin edition (I do not find this translation available for ) ( Candide Or Optimism (Penguin Classics) Listed on as ASIN 0140440046 - Candide) The Annenberg Learner website considers this to be the recommended version, saying "This is our recommended edition. This 1947 translation by John Everett Butt provides a clear and stylish English equivalent for the mordant original. This edition has an introduction by the translator, a noted scholar and literary editor, who was Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University." See [...]
- This 1961 translation by Daniel M. Frame (I do not find this translation available for ) (Listed on as ASIN 0451531159 - Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories) which includes 15 additional stories by Voltaire.
- a newer 2005 translation by Theo Cuffe also released by Penguin and available on (Listed on as ASIN B00EK28X1C - Candide, or Optimism (Penguin Classics) or (Listed on as ASIN B00B7NP1HQ - Candide Or Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). These Penguin editions for do include a number of supplementary notes (translators note, note on the text, note on names, map, appendices, chronology, further reading) but do not include any additional works by Voltaire in addition to Candide.
- translation by Peter Constantine available in Everyman's Library edition (I do not find this translation available for ) (Listed on as ASIN 067941746X - Candide and Other Stories (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics), includes other stories by Voltaire (according to one of the reviews the included stories are Micromegas, Zadig, What Pleases the Ladies, The Ingenu, The White Bull).
- 1990 translation by Roger Pearson available in Oxford World Classics edition (the first link is an earlier edition published by Oxford and the second link is a edition that is a newer version of the same thing) (Listed on as ASIN 0192807269 - Candide and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics), or the more recent printing (Listed on as ASIN B005JJ9RME - Candide and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) includes several other stories by Voltaire (Micromegas, Zadig, What Pleases the Ladies, The Ingenue, and The White Bull).
- Norton Critical Edition, translated by Robert M. Adams and including extensive accompanying essays giving background and criticism, and first published in 1966 (I do not find this translation available for ) (Listed on as ASIN 0393960587 - Candide (A Norton Critical Edition). This edition does not include other works by Voltaire but does, as mentioned, include a great deal of supplementary material on Candide.
My opinion is that this is a fully satisfactory version of Candide for those readers interested in this book and wanting an inexpensive copy for their . It is being offered for free at the present time on but will probably be sold at a slightly higher price once this 'introductory' period has been completed. It is essentially equivalent to the several other 99 cent versions presently available for the , from Dover Publications, and a couple from unidentified publishers and simply showing " Digital Services". - I first saw the musical adaptation of "Candide" on Broadway, in the 1970's, and loved it. I decided to do it justice by reading Voltaire's original novel, and lo! The book has an entire story well beyond the musical adaptation! I found it to be not only instructive, nut enlightening, with a message that applies to the modern world as well. It is funny, pitiful, and a fast read, worthy of any educated individual, especially in our senior years.
Recommended. - The lesson from this story is that; Kings and Queens lose kingdoms and thrones, knights lose honors and reputation, reduced to commoners, Officials lose offices and privileges, the rich squander money on food, pleasures and material artifacts in the hope of buying happiness that is never found. Asking too many questions about why is life the way it is, why are things the way they, why events the way they is another waste of time that reveal none of the answers sought and aspired to or sought. The end result of the rapid events and tragedies in Voltaire`s Candid, Is that the key to enjoy life is to be content with what you have, and content with you have is in the simplest and least desired things in life. A small piece of land with a small country house, will give you more pleasure, serenity, honor and peace of mind, in ploughing the land and eating what simple product it may yield, than all the kingdoms and riches of life!
